scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1090083

Invariant theory concerns the study of the ring of invariants of an affine ring \(R\) (i.e. a finitely generated algebra over a field) when it is acted on by an affine algebraic group \(G\), e.g. \(G= GL(n)\), \(SL(n)\). This theory was actively pursued in the later half of the 19th century. Cayley's work around 1850 is supposed to be the beginning of this theory. The work of Hilbert around 1890 could be considered as the culmination of the work of this period. Invariant theory is closely connected with the construction of orbit spaces i.e. the space of \(G\)-orbits when \(G\) acts on a variety \(X\). This is a subtle affair in algebraic geometry. Many important problems in algebraic geometry like the construction of the moduli spaces of curves, abelian varieties, vector bundles on curves etc. are closely related to the construction of orbit spaces. The success of the techniques introduced by \textit{D. Mumford}'s work on ``Geometric invariant theory [see the second edition of this book by \textit{D. Mumford} and \textit{J. Fogarty} (1982; Zbl 0504.14008)] in the 60's in solving these problems, has given a new life to invariant theory. This talk is meant as an introduction to invariant theory. We will not enter into many of its aspects, in particular its applications to moduli problems for which we refer to the work of Mumford cited above. The book of \textit{H. Weyl}, ``The classical groups, their invariants and representations (1939; Zbl 0020.20601)] contains a lot of material on invariant theory, including its history. Here, after going through some background material, we will outline the proofs of the finite generation of invariants in the following cases: (i) \(G\) is a finite group. (ii) \(G\) is a reductive group (e.g. \(G=GL(n)\), \(SL(n))\), the ground field being of characteristic zero. (iii) \(G\) is the 1-parameter group acting linearly on the algebra of polynomials (say of degree \(m)\) over a field of characteristic zero.

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